Three Jacobean Witchcraft Plays: Sophonisba / The Witch / The Witch of Edmonton

by Peter Corbin (Editor), Douglas Sedge (Editor)

For Jacobean society, witchcraft was a potent and very real force, an area of sharp controversy in which King James I himself participated and a phenomenon that attracted many dramatists and writers. The three plays in this volume reflect the variety of belief in witches and practice of witchcraft in the Jacobean period. Jacobean understanding of witchcraft is illuminated by the close study of these contrasting texts in relation to each other, and to other contemporary "The Masque of Queenes", "Dr Faustus", "Macbeth, and "The Tempest". The introduction and commentaries explore the theatrical potential of plays which, with the exception of "The Witch of Edmonton", have been hitherto lost to the dramatic repertory.

Genres: Plays, Classics

260 pages, Paperback

First published July 15, 1986

Reviews

[Gill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read as part of the Shakespeare Institute group readings of Early Modern plays. This one is fun to read, though as much a 'docudrama' as anything on TV about recent political events - some stuff taken direct from sources, but an entire second plot pretty much made up as they went along. The central character, Elizabeth Sawyer, the 'witch' has some astonishingly good speeches, challenging the very assumptions about witchcraft of the period. Well worth revisiting.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sophonisba is really a very interesting play, and one that makes one think how different we are from the people of 1608. Here is a play, performed by children (well, teenage boys) which has within it a girl practically losing her virginity onstage, a pretty violent attempted rape scene and a scene of a man so mad with lust that he has sex with a witch from the earth.

I thought, as it started, that it would be too Senecan, with unchanging characters (the Keith Sturgess introduction suggested so) but, after all that, it becomes a proper tragedy. She continues to escape from the clutches of the evil Syphax, only to pluck defeat from the jaws of victory in the final scene, which is (in my opinion) really moving.

Great.

Hmmm, to describe Middleton's The Witch as batshit crazy is to be slightly unfair to batshit. I have just finished it in one sitting and my oh my.

What have I just read?

This is one of those plays where the attitudes of people in Jacobean England are so different from my own, it's like what?

Okay: take one: a woman attempts murder on her husband by seducing a man to murder her. The plot is discovered, but she reveals it wasn't her, but she prostituted her maid instead. Husband leaps up, "I wasn't dead: that shows you really love me after all": happily ever after.

Take two: husband who's been having a seven-year affair believes his wife is cheating on him, because he's been told by his sister, so he stabs his faithful servant and his wife. But no, it was only fleshwounds and it was his mistress he almost killed, so everything's all right.

Take three: teenager is up the duff on first go with her boyfriend, so fakes a letter from her mother to escape to the country, where she has the baby, gets some old woman to take it, and heads home, a bit pale, but otherwise "baby? what baby?". She rides home on a horse.

And I haven't even got to the incestuous, cannibalistic witches yet, who frankly don't have much part in the story, but Middleton re-used them anyway when he came to refresh Macbeth.

I mean, merciful heavens.

The notes and introduction are great.

Oh yeah, and everything done at a fever pitch of emotions, it's like a Latin American 80s telenovella. But on coke.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everybody has read Shakespeare's Macbeth , however not many have heard of these little known witchcraft plays. When you dive deeper into the depths of these historical works, one can find a vivid insight into the past. When looked at side by side to witchcraft trials that occurred around that time, as well as relevant witchcraft acts, such as James I Act of 1612, these plays make for an intriguing read.

[Laura Mckinney · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lovely book that shows the span of witchcraft belief in England during James I reign. I wish that there was a larger critical introduction, but Corbin and Sedge provide detailed notes to make up for it. The three plays included (Sophonisba, The Witch, and The Witch if Edmonton) are must reads for those interested in the representation of the stage witch.

[Lulu]

The Wonder of Women or The Tragedy of Sophonisba 1605/6

The witch by middleton 1613-16

The Witch of Edmonton 1621 (check Title page from a 1658 printed edition in wiki)

Also: 1634 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... The play is a topical melodrama on the subject of the witchcraft controversy that arose in Lancashire in 1633.

[Annalisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three little known early modern plays, well edited and with a great introduction. I'd much prefer to have footnotes at the bottom of the page, rather than in in the back (too much flipping back and forth), but otherwise this is very well done.

[Tina Naples · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great thing to be able to enjoy plays like this.

[imogen thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love these plays but hate that they are rooted in historical reality. The Witch of Edmonton, in particular - justice for Elizabeth Sawyer, can we clear her name posthumously, please??